Torrejón, Marc ref1
Torres, Diego ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Torres, Juan Manuel ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Torres, Miguel ref1
Torreto, Diana ref1
Tort, Oriol ref1
Toshack, John ref1
Touré, Yaya ref1
Toyota International Youth Under ref1
Football Championship ref1
Treves, David ref1
Troiteiro, Jorge ref1
Trust, Oliver ref1
Turkish Airlines ref1, ref2
Udenio, Enrico ref1
Udinese ref1
Unari, Oscar ref1
Under 17 World Championships ref1, ref2
Under 20s World Championship ref1, ref2, ref3
Group stage ref1
Last 16 ref1
Quarter-final ref1
Semi-final ref1
Final ref1
victory celebrations ref1
Urtasún, Eduardo ref1
Uruguay national team ref1, ref2, ref3
Uruguay national youth team ref1
USA national youth team ref1
Ustari, Oscar ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14, ref15, ref16
Vairo, Federico ref1
Valdano, Jorge ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12
Valdés, Víctor ref1, ref2, ref3
Valencia ref1
Valiente, Marc ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Vallejos, Diego ref1, ref2
Valverde, Ernesto ref1
Van Basten, Marco ref1, ref2
Van Bommel, Mark ref1
van Bronckhorst, Gio ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9
van de Velde, Jean ref1
van der Kooy, Eduardo ref1, ref2
Van Gaal, Louis ref1, ref2, ref3
Van Nistelrooy, Ruud ref1
Vanczák, Vilmos ref1
Varsky, Juan Pablo ref1, ref2
Vázquez, Víctor ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14, ref15, ref16, ref17, ref18, ref19
Vecchio, Ernesto ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10
Velasco, Julio ref1
Vélez, Fernando Araújo ref1
Venezuela national team ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Verdú, Joan ref1
Verón, Juan Sebastián ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Vilanova, Tito ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11
Villa, David ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Villalba, Ricardo ref1, ref2
Villar, Ángel María ref1
Villarreal ref1
Villarreal football school ref1
Villoro, Juan ref1
Vitti, Pablo ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Vivas, Claudio ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Vivas, José ref1
Wenger, Arsène ref1, ref2
Werder Bremen ref1, ref2
Wert, José Ignacio ref1
Westerhof, Rob ref1
Woods, Tiger ref1
World Cup, 1947 ref1
World Cup, 1958 ref1
World Cup, 1986 ref1, ref2
World Cup, 2006 ref1, ref2
World Cup, 2010 ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
World Cup, 2014 ref1, ref2, ref3
Xavi, Tamudo, ref1, ref2
Yomo, Marcelo ref1
youth clásico ref1
youth signings ref1
youth training ref1, ref2
Newell’s Old Boys (NOB) ref1
Yudica, José ref1
Yusté, Rafa ref1
Zabaleta, Pablo ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14, ref15, ref16, ref17, ref18
Zanotti, Mauro Andrés ref1
Zaragoza ref1
Zaragoza B. ref1
Zidane, Zinedine ref1, ref2
Zubizarreta, Andoni ref1, ref2, ref3
Plate Section
The smallest one is Leo (second row, l to r, fifth) age four with the children’s football team Grandoli. Behind him is coach Salvador Aparicio.
Age five (front row, l to r, second). Jorge, his dad, with the blue coat, was his coach for a season with Grandoli.
The great 87 generation. And the Game of the Mask.
The day of his debut with the first team, against Porto (16 October 2003). Yes, he was a bit lost.
Then he got on to the pitch and came to life.
Ronaldinho adopted Messi as his ‘brother’.
A man for the big occasion: Champions League final, 2009.
An extraordinary season. In 2009, Barcelona won everything.
One day his dad asked him to turn around and give time to his fans. He never needed to be told again.
The winning goal of the FIFA Club World Cup, 2009, in extra time. A very hard game.
Six titles out of six. The perfect year for Barcelona and Leo.
With Pep Guardiola, many of Leo’s habits changed. His physical preparation became more individually orientated. After two years of injury nightmares, he learned to listen to his body.
First Ballon d’Or, 2009. With his mum Celia, and his dad Jorge. The road there was arduous.
When Messi was 13, his mum had to leave Barcelona to look after the other half of the family who could not adapt to life in Barcelona. She is the centre of his world. Here he celebrates her birthday after yet another goal.
Messi cried the day Barcelona lost against Sevilla in the Cup . . . after having won every single title in the first year and a half with Pep. Every defeat is a little death.
After Ronaldinho left, the Catalans looked after Leo. They knew he was going to make them better, to help them win.
Man of the match, goalscorer of the 2-1 . . . at Wembley Leo Messi helped Barcelona win another Champions League.
His third Champions League win, but he only celebrated two.
In 2011, at Wembley, the world recognised he was not just something special. He was probably the best ever. Sir Alex Ferguson went out of his way to shake his hand.
Winning is the thing to do, but scoring against and beating Real Madrid makes the job special.
Pep had to understand how to talk to Leo. At first, fluent communication was not easy.
Always a pleasure to sign the Argentinian shirt, even though for years his compatriots did not believe in him.
The 2011 Club World Cup against Santos was the consecration of the Barcelona style.
On that day, Leo Messi asked Neymar to join Barcelona.
Lionel with his mother Celia (right) and Monica Fein, mayor of Messi’s home town Rosario, after being made Honorary Citizen on 30 December 2011. He is finally recognised at home.
Third Ballon d’Or. He wanted more.
He cries in silence. Even after having won everything, there are defeats that hurt too much.
And when he does cry, as he still does, he just wants to be in his own world. It is hard to deal with him then.
On the pitch at the last game with Pep Guardiola at the Camp Nou. Messi scored four goals and said goodbye to him on the pitch. ‘Thank you for everything, Leo,’ Pep told him.
Tito Vilanova was the first coach at the Barcelona academy to make him play in his current position. They met again in the first team and Leo backed him when he became first team coach. Seeing Vilanova getting ill was very hard for him.
He tries to live with what fame brings. But these are the moments he likes the least.
Commercially, it has taken a while for him to take off, partly because he wanted to be a player first, never a label.
Leo doesn’t play to please you, me or anybody. But he certainly appreciates the support.
Leo and a ball. A special relationship.
With Jose Manuel Pinto, a close friend who knows how to look after him.
Leo and Dad. Leo and his manager.
He prefers to be d
iscreet off the pitch, but he has a strong personality that only those close to him can see.
He works with the Leo Messi Foundation to help kids. He started it after a visit to a ward with kids suffering from cancer which made him cry.
Nobody got this far.
His contract renewed again. The club wants to make sure he is always happy.
Leo and Barcelona. He gave the club lots. The club gave him lots. An excellent marriage.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
A Season on the Brink
Pep Guardiola
Copyright
An Orion ebook
First published in Great Britain in 2013 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson
This ebook first published in 2013 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson
© Guillem Balague 2013
The right of Guillem Balague to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The author and publisher are grateful to Miguel Ruiz for permission to reproduce all the photographs except 1, 2, 3 and 23 (Press Association).
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 1 4091 4661 2
Typeset by Input Data Services Ltd, Bridgwater, Somerset
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
An imprint of the Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Orion House
5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane
London WC2H 9EA
An Hachette UK Company
www.orionbooks.co.uk
For competitions, author interviews,
pre-publication extracts, news and events,
sign up to the monthly
Orion Books Newsletter
at
www.orionbooks.co.uk
Prefer your updates daily?
Follow us @orionbooks
Messi Page 76